Charity and fun the forecast for team building growth in 2016

Investment by Australian businesses in team building activities will continue to grow in 2016 with a trend towards charity-focused programs, according to corporate team building expert Dwain Richardson.

Richardson, who is the managing director of Corporate Challenge Events, also forecasts growth in a team building area he dubs “science meeting adventure”.

“In our increasingly busier and faster-paced business life, organisations and management are recognising the importance of developing leadership, agile thinking and self awareness within their teams,” said Richardson.

“We believe that team building programs that combine a structured science or evidence-based education session with experiential and fun activities to aid the reinforcement of key concepts will become more and more popular.

“Simply, learning while having fun is a massive growth area for team building in Australia moving forward.”

This year Corporate Challenge Events experienced an increase in bookings for charity-based team building events in each state.

The total amount raised for charities exceeded $200,000 including some events where the value donated was more than $10,000 to a charity partner.

The most popular charity-based team building program was ‘Bikes For Tykes’. This program requires teams to work through strategic group activities to ultimately build a bike and donate it to a children’s charity.

One of the largest ‘Bikes For Tykes’ program in 2015 was delivered for IBM in Sydney, with the result being 35 brand-new bikes donated to HeartKids Australia, Children’s Cancer Institute and Variety.

The largest overall team building event delivered by Corporate Challenge Events was for more than 850 participants on the Gold Coast. It was a ‘Beach Olympics’ delivered for a school holiday WorldSport rugby and netball carnival.

Team building events were delivered for clients all across Australia from Darwin and Port Douglas in the north, Hobart in the south and into some far-reaching locations such as Karratha in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Richardson also highlighted two events that showcased a growing suite of event management services that Corporate Challenge Events can offer clients.

“In September, we organised a 1,200km nine-day charity bike ride from Airlie Beach to the Gold Coast called the Tour Duchenne for a great organisation in the Fight Duchenne Foundation Australia.

“Then a few weeks ago, we helped to deliver a Christmas party with a difference for one of our long-time clients in Epic Pharmacy part of the Icon Group.

“It was called ‘Brisbane to our CORE’ and featured not only a Christmas party function but also a staff conference and a fun team building program all in two days.”